Luma Health has launched a new Digital Call Deflection service to create a better experience for patients and reduce inbound call volume for staff by redirecting calls to self-service SMS. Luma Digital Call Deflection, now available to all health systems and clinics, helps short-staffed healthcare providers get patients to the next step in their care with a fast, easy, and customized self-service experience.
“Our call volumes are at an all-time high, and Luma’s Digital Call Deflection is relieving significant time on the phone for our overburdened agents,” said Johanna Weller, VP of system revenue cycle at Main Line Health. “It’s also creating a better patient experience and supporting our digital front door by giving patients the option to use text messages to self-serve instead of waiting on hold.”
At Main Line Health, a leading regional health system in Pennsylvania, more than 20 percent of patients calling to schedule mammograms or DEXA scans opted to switch to SMS rather than wait on hold. At GPW Health Center, a federally qualified health center in Virginia, more than 25 percent of patients opted for SMS. Across early adopters, Digital Call Deflection has eliminated more than 5,000 inbound calls for call center staff to handle.
“As a federally qualified health center, we need to serve as many patients as possible while reducing strain on our staff,” said Evelin Manzanares, COO at GPW Health Center. “Luma’s Digital Call Deflection has empowered 25 percent of our patients to self-serve via text message, ultimately helping them get what they need while our staff focus on more complex calls.”
Luma Digital Call Deflection meets patients’ expectations for self-service options and gives them more control over their time. By giving them the option to seamlessly switch from a phone call to self-service text messaging, Digital Call Deflection reduces the long wait times that contribute to call abandonment and can drive up to 20 percent of patients to abandon their call and seek care elsewhere. Building on the power of Luma’s category-defining Patient Success Platform™, it empowers patients to view, schedule, cancel, or change appointments, request a prescription refill, get directions to a clinic location, or ask staff a question—all without staff intervention or the need to monitor a chat line.
“We want to make every aspect of getting care easy, whether that’s on a cell phone, website, or landline, and no matter what the patient is doing or what time it is,” said Kat Mittleider, senior product manager at Luma Health. “Digital Call Deflection provides patients more options to make getting what they need easier.”
Digital Call Deflection improves the patient experience at healthcare organizations
- At Main Line Health, a regional health system that integrated Luma with Epic, Digital Call Deflection has saved more than 15,000 minutes of call center time, to date.
- At GPW Health Center, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) integrating Luma with eClinicalWorks, more than 25 percent of patients switched to SMS rather than wait on hold.
- At KC Pain Centers, a specialty group integrating Luma with eClinicalWorks, within two weeks of implementing Digital Call Deflection, more than 200 patients opted to receive a text to get their appointment details rather than wait on hold.
